Which Me Do You Like - Revamped!
by Scruffy-Nerf-Hearder
Summary: You remember the story of Minnie Strong, Tony Stark's assistant and Bruce Banner, the lovable scientist with a heart of green, well now they're back in the brand new rewrite of the original story Which Me Do You Like. Follow your favorite plots as they're rewritten and mixed in with new characters, old characters and all of the charm of the original with better writing. BB/OC
1. Chapter 1

_**Hey y'all, in case you didn't get my message before, that's right, I'm re-writing our old favorite Which Me Do You Like! I want to say thank you so much to everyone who had continued to love and read this story over the years, and it's because of all of you that I've decided to re-write it! I hope you all enjoy the new version of Which Me Do You Like, and please let me know you favorite moments from the original and I'll try to keep as much as I can the same, along with your favorite moments from the MCU which I'll try to keep in this story as well.**_

 _ **But for now, sit back, relax, and re-enjoy Which Me Do You Like!**_

 _ **~Scruffy**_

 _ **Disclaimer: As always, nothing I write is making any money, Minnie is the only thing that belongs to me, Marvel is owned by Disney, and I hope they stop fucking things up in the MCU. (We all know what I mean.)**_

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The expansion of a business is a very risky matter, there are risks as well as opportunities to go wrong at every turn. When a business expands it is a tentative, slow process- Unless of course the business in question is an already worldwide success like Stark Industries. The completion of Stark Tower was only declared after the successful usage of the Arc Reactor as the only power source for the building. A success that should have been celebrated by Tony Stark, if it hadn't been for what he liked to call his little side project helping save the world. Pepper Potts had gone to DC, Tony had gone to- Well no one was really sure where Tony had gone, classified information and all, and Tony's assistant, the young woman he'd hired on after giving Pepper the reins to his company, was left to work in the building alone. The press release had been sent out and she was working in her brand new office, full of brand new furniture and a pretty potted plant she'd bought herself at Trader Joes that morning. Scheduling interviews for Tony, fielding calls, the things an assistant does when given a brief reprise from the daily insanity the assistant of Tony Stark goes through.

Her name was Simone Strong, or Minnie, if you were Tony. It was a name she'd grown to liking though, it reminded her almost of Minnie Fay from Hello, Dolly! Though, for the life of her, she couldn't sing. What she could do however was help keep Tony updated on anything he needed to know about, and run his life, something she'd liked doing so much in LA that when he offered to keep her on throughout the move to New York, she'd said yes immediately. Minnie sat at her desk, fingers typing out a reply to a request for an interview about renewable energy, giving the sender a few options for dates when JARVIS, the AI that Tony had run throughout the entire tower spoke up. "Pardon me Ms. Strong, but there appears to be a security breach in the penthouse."

The penthouse? That was where Tony and Pepper intended to live, it was not where she expected there to be a security breach, if Tony had come home, JARVIS would have simply told her that, but as she was supposed to be alone, aside from the security guard downstairs making sure that she was the only person in and out of the tower, it made no sense that someone could get all the way to the penthouse before JARVIS would have informed her. "What the hell?" she muttered as she pushed away from her desk, pressing send on the email she'd finished writing before she ventured out to the hallway. Her office was on the ninetieth floor, three floors down from the penthouse. As she stepped into the elevator she felt the power surge for a moment, and gripping the walls of the elevator as it bounced she was suddenly filled with anxiety as she thought of all of the movies she'd seen featuring plummeting elevator scenes. The lights flickered for a moment before the elevator began to rise again. "JARVIS," Minnie squeaked. "What the hell was that?"

"There appears to be a great deal of energy being used on the roof," the AI told her. "I've tried turning off the power, but something turned it back on." she waited in agony for the moments before the elevator stopped and opened its doors slowly with a soft ding, Minnie practically launching herself from the doors before she froze in shock. There really was someone there, and he looked- Well in all honesty he looked ridiculous, but it was too startling coming upon a person who shouldn't be there to focus too much on the green and black leather, and the gold- What would you call that? A crown? A Helmet? A homage to antlered animals? It would have made Minnie chuckle if the man hadn't turned at the sound of her heels on the dark granite floor. He looked as surprised as she was to see another person in the tower, and he turned to her slowly, as if he was studying her.

"J- JARVIS-" Minnie stuttered before he held a hand up, placing a finger to his pale lips.

"Shh- shh- shh" he said softly and she fell silent, her eyes locked on his as he seemed to inspect her and then stalked towards her, walking around her in a circle. "I thought this building to be empty." he said as he walked around her, Minnie turning her head as far as she could one way to keep her eyes on him before snapping in the other direction, not trusting this man behind her back. "Tell me, who are you?"

"I- I'm no one." she said as he moved around her left side, looking at her with mocking amusement. "I mean, I'm- I'm alone." she wasn't going to sell out the security guard, praying that JARVIS had told him there was a security breach and that he'd called the police. Though how he got up there in the first place, she didn't know.. Oh god, what if he was dead? That poor sweet little twenty year old boy who had been so excited to work for Tony Stark.

"Why does an empty building have an employee inside of it then?" the man asked and Minnie racked her brain for an answer, thinking desperately of what she could tell this man without telling him who she really was.

"I-" Minnie started to speak before her savior came in the form of her boss landing his suit on the landing pad and walking through the process that stripped him of his armor. He looked in at Minnie and the man whose name she didn't know and gave her a seemingly casual smile as he walked in the door.

"Ah, right on time," the stranger said as he turned to Tony, his hand moving to grip Minnie's arm in a grip she never would have expected from him. "Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity."

"Uh, actually I'm planning to threaten you." Tony replied as he walked towards the bar at a casual gait, his eyes scanning the woman held tight by Loki. Her face looked pained, though that could have been the grip Loki had on her arm, nonetheless, Tony's eyes darkened as he looked at the man. "Let the girl go."

Loki looked down at Minnie who at 5'3" really lived up to her nickname, before drawing her closer. "You should have kept the suit on if you were planning on making demands."

"Yeah, it's seen a couple of miles, you have the blue stick of destiny, You want a drink?" Tony switched gears suddenly, making Minnie frown. Was he really going to just casually talk to this man? Was he seriously going to do nothing while she stood there being… Manhandled? Minnie opened her mouth to speak but catching the look in Tony's eye as he looked at her made her shut her mouth again, he was planning something, he was… Oh god she felt dumb, he was buying time. The two talked as Minnie mapped out the floor of the tower, they were on the ninety third floor, if she could make it downstairs- well they always said in emergencies not to use the elevators in an emergency, so if she could make it all the way down the stairs she could get outside and get to the police, She'd be safe if she could get outside.

And the next thing she knew the man was pulling her forward while he stalked towards Tony, speaking lowly, like he was amused as he said "How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?" and with that he lifted the scepter in his hand, the one Minnie felt stupid for not having seen before and placed it to Tony's chest, eliciting a small yelp of terror from Minnie, assuming she was about to watch her boss get gored. But then nothing happened, the man's scepter seemed to have placed against the arc reactor, and he looked confused, not longer as intimidating as he had been mere moments before, in fact he'd let go of Minnie's arm, something she hardly noticed as he placed his scepter against the arc reactor again.

"Performance issues," Tony was saying as the man looked at his chest with a frown, before being suddenly grabbed by the man. Minnie yelped again, half town as the man walked towards the window and spoke to Tony between running, or staying and helping. As she looked around Tony tried to gesture to her, a wave of the hand in the direction of not the stairs, but his and Pepper's bedroom. The sound of glass shattering suddenly breaking her from her hesitation as she looked around at the place where her boss had just been.

"Tony!" the scream escaped her lips as she looked on in horror, the man looking around at her as the wall to her left opened up and the new suit was deployed, rushing out the window after her boss. Minnie stood in horror before she ran to the bar, grabbing a glass off of the top of it as the man took a step towards her, before Tony was suddenly in the window, the Iron Man suit around him protectively as he spoke.

"And there was one other person you pissed off. His name was Phil." and with that a repulsor blast to the chest had the man on his back. Minnie looked over at Tony as he mask of the armor opened. "Get out of here Minnie, get somewhere safe." he told her. "I don't know what kind of shit it is, but the shit is about to hit the fan."

"Yeah, no kidding." Minnie said as she looked at him before there was a blast of blue light behind Tony. She looked out past his shoulder as the light went into the sky and seemed to separate a hole in the sky, a darkness beyond the hole let her know what she was looking at, some sort of wormhole, and there were people, no, creatures coming from it.

"Minnie, go!" Tony shouted at her before the helmet closed and Minnie turned to the stairway, pushing the door open and starting to run down the stairs, her brain moving faster than her feet as she ran down one flight, turned and continued down, ignoring the doorways onto different floors, until she took one turn too fast, the heel of her shoe catching the edge of the stair, sending her rolling down the stairs in a series of painful thuds and grunts of pain from Minnie. When she hit the cement wall she lay there for a moment, her knee felt like hell, it had twisted when she'd fallen, and she sat up gingerly, trying to blink away the flashing lights in front of her eyes. A loud booming outside made her remember what she was doing and after standing, Minnie slipped off her Alexander McQueens and left them there, between the sixty seventh and sixty sixth floors.

It was tough going, getting down the stairs with her knee swelling and throbbing as she moved carefully, her cheek hurt as well, but not nearly as badly as her knee, which, looking at it, she would definitely describe as wrenched. Minnie's movement was getting slower the further down the stairs she got, limping and putting as much weight as she could on the hand railing as she went down the stairs. It took maybe fifteen minutes before she saw the sign for the lobby and opening the door to the lobby she leaned against the wall for a moment, taking a breath as she tried to steady herself before she started to limp her way across the empty floor towards the front doors, but after she paused to look around at what was happening Minnie started to reconsider. The city was in chaos, there was no other word for it, purse chaos as creatures rode strange ships around the sky, shooting at people, cars, buildings, a large armored worm twisting its way through the sky as it followed a tiny red moving man, the very one she realized was her boss. She held onto the security desk for a moment before she caught sight of the security man.

"Paul!" Minnie limped towards the blond haired kid who was barely out of his teenage years who turned and gave an astonished gasp.

"Ms. Strong!" he rushed over towards her and caught her around the waist, trying to keep her weight off of her injured knee. "What happened to your face Ms. Strong, and your knee? Did those things do that to you?"

"No, I fell down the stairs." Minnie told him as she lifted a hand to touch her swollen cheek and groaned softly. "What's going on out there?"

"It's aliens ma'am." he told her and she nodded.

"Yeah, I mean I got that, but it- is anyone helping Tony?" she asked.

"There seems to be." Paul replied as he looked out the door. "What were you doing coming out here Ms. Strong? I hope you weren't planning on leaving because that's not going to happen."

"I didn't think, I was just trying to get away." Minnie shook her head. "I just- I need to think for a minute."

"You need to get somewhere safe." Paul insisted as he pulled her closer to the security desk, and away from the danger.

"I know, I know." Minnie racked her brain, trying to think of the best place to hide. "I just- I can't believe Tony doesn't have a safe room of some sort or like a panic room." she ran a hand through her half still pinned up hair and she groaned. "Somewhere safe, somewhere safe, somewhere-" Minnie opened her eyes and looked up at Paul. "The arc Reactor room." she told him and he seemed to think for a moment before he nodded. "The big one, downstairs." she told him. Paul stood up, his arm around Minnie's waist, her arm over his shoulder as he helped her downstairs, to the basement.

Minnie let Paul help her along to the Arc Reactor room, scanning her badge in front of the the scanner before the door unlatched and she pulled it open, Paul helping her inside before setting her down on the floor, the blue light of the Arc Reactor making everything in the room glow blue. "You'll be safe here." he told her as he started to turn and leave.

"Wait, Paul," she said when she realized he was leaving and he turned. "Aren't you going to stay?"

"I'm going to go see if there's other people who need help. We were lucky this building was empty, other people aren't so lucky." he told her and she stared at him before calling out again.

"Paul-" he turned, a hand on the door as she held a hand out towards him. "Be careful." she lowered her hand and he gave her his sweet half smile that would have any girl weak at the knees, if she hadn't been weak at the knee already.

"Stay safe Ms. Strong." he told her before he opened the door and closed it behind him.

"JARVIS," Minnie spoke up. "Seal the door." And with a loud thud, Minnie knew the door was sealed, and she sat there on the floor in the basement of Stark Tower, with the whole world going to shit above her, her knee twisted and possibly broken, her cheek throbbing and a feeling of anxiety settling in along with the pain as the adrenaline started to fade away. Now would have been the perfect time for her to faint, to black out and lose consciousness, but she wasn't built that way. And so she waited, for the events of upstairs to fade away, for the fighting to stop, and for her boss to seek her out, to tell her what had happened, who that man was and how they were going to move forward.

But until that happened, Minnie had nothing to do but wait.

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 _ **Well, that's it, the first chapter of the new and improved Which Me Do You Like! I hope you liked it, and I hope you'll remember to favorite and follow to get updates for when this story continues!**_

 _ **Be excellent to each other!**_

 _ **~Scruffy.**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Hey y'all! Wow I really dropped the ball on this, but after a lot of thought, a lot of figuring out the timelines and a lot of talking with my writing partner, I give you, chapter 2 of Which Me Do You Like- Revamped! So I've said in the past I'm going to try and keep some things similar to the old story, but there are some things I'm going to change, including the addition of a new character you haven't seen before!**_

 _ **I'm figuring out ways to incorporate my story into the MCU timeline, and how to make the MCU timeline work with my story, so I hope you enjoy it, new characters and all!**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own The Avengers, or anything that you recognize, all of that belongs to Disney and Marvel. They just control my life.**_

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"Just three more Minnie," Minnie grunted as she lifted her leg, the ankle weight around her ankle making it a slow movement. The ache in her muscles making her leg feel like it was screaming with protest. "Good, two more." she squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her jaw as she lifted her leg again. "Don't forget to breathe," she let out a slow breath as she lowered her leg and then began to lift it again, slowly, the muscles shaking as she did. "And hold it." Minnie's eyes flew open as she looked at the physical trainer who stood above her, watching her as she held her leg in the air, trying to keep it there for as long as she could before- "And slowly lower it." she did as she was told and let out a sigh of relief. "You're all done."

"Great," she chuckled, sitting up as she started to rub her knee slightly. "God, you kicked my ass today." she commented and he grinned slightly.

"Ah, yeah, I know, but you kind of need a day of getting your ass kicked, I was going too easy on you for too long."

"It's not like my insurance is going to run out or anything." she commented as she started to undo the weight around her ankle, making Mike, the trainer, laugh.

"That's true, but you know we have to get you back up to fighting shape if you're going to be working for the Avengers."

"I don't work for the Avengers," Minnie said, looking at her trainer. "I work for Tony Stark."

"Yeah, I know," Mike said as he offered her his hand, when she took it he pulled her into a standing position, her knee protesting the weight she put on it, but she knew she needed to stretch it out. "Don't forget to take it easy today. And alternate hot and cold on it." he reminded her as she nodded.

"I know, I remember." she said, moving slowly to her purse, pulling out her checkbook and then tearing the check she'd already written out of it. "Here, this is for this week and next session." she said as she handed it to the trainer who took it and nodded. "Same time?"

"Same place." he grinned at her as she slung her purse over her shoulder. "Looks like your ride's here." he nodded to the window making her turn and look, indeed the black car was there, with a Stark Industries driver waiting for her.

"One of these days I'm going to remind Tony that I don't need a ride here or home, it's only five blocks."

"You could tell them now."

"I said one of these days. I didn't say today." she grinned making him laugh. "See you in two weeks Mike."

"See you then," he agreed as she walked to the car. The driver opened the door and she slipped in, settling back against the cool leather of the town car while the driver closed the door and walked around to the front. After getting himself settled he started the car, the heat from the vents blowing on him and her in the back seat after carefully aiming them to make sure she got some of it, he pulled away from the curb and into traffic. It was a brisk November morning and Minnie would be happy to be back in her apartment, getting warm after the chill in the New York air.

When she got home the doorman to her building walked over and opened the door, letting her step out onto the curb. "Forget your coat this morning Ms. Strong?" he asked as he walked with her to the door.

"No, I left it at home. I thought I'd get a little bit more of this New York weather before we head back to California." she explained and he nodded.

"When do you leave?"

"Our flight leaves tonight at Six. Now I just have to make sure we're there in time." she explained making him chuckle.

"Yes ma'am." he nodded as he held the door open. Stepping into the apartment building Minnie pulled her phone from her purse and inserted her earbuds, calling Tony to let him know she was out of physical therapy.

"Hey Red," he greeted her by way of answering. "How's the knee?"

"Sore," she admitted. "Mike kicked my ass this week because I'm going to be gone for the week for Thanksgiving."

"Does it make you feel any better to know that you're going to be on your feet for the week?" he asked as she pressed the call button for the elevator.

"It sounds good to me. I've got to call the Department of Damage Control and see how things are doing and then swing over to the tower and see how the re-build is going before we leave."

"What time are you getting to the airport?"

"Our flight's at Six, so I'm going to try and get out of here by four."

"You think you'll make it?"

"Well," Minnie paused and looked at her watch. "It's eleven thirty now, I think I've got time."

"You all packed?" he asked making her roll her eyes as she stepped onto the elevator.

"I mean, I am." she said as she pressed the button for the twenty second floor. "But we'll see."

"Alright, let me know when you're headed over to the tower, I'll let Bruce know you're on your way over."

"Okay, sounds good." Minnie said, leaning against her uninjured knee. "I'm going to take a quick shower and then get started. If Reagan hasn't used up all of the hot water." she scoffed making Tony chuckle. "I'll talk to you later Tony."

"Talk to you later Red." she hung up at his answer and the doors slid open, after walking down the hall to her apartment she unlocked the front door and stepped in, setting her purse down.

"Reagan!" she called. "Just because you're on vacation doesn't mean you can sleep the day away." she moved down the hall towards the smaller bedroom in the two bedroom. Finding the door closed she opened it, looking in at the sleeping form of her daughter. "Reagan, time to get up," Minnie sang making the almost fifteen year old groan and cover her face with her blanket. "Time to get up Rae!" Minnie walked in and pulled the blanket off of the girl's face.

" _Mooooom,_ " she whined. "God, _stop_."

"Reagan, you know we have to leave in a few hours and you've still got some packing to do." Minnie looked over at the desk, covered in clothes and the luggage at the end of her bed. "Come on Sweetheart, get up. I'm going to take a shower and if you're not awake by the time I get out I'm turning off the heat and opening your window."

"Sadist." mumbled Reagan as she opened her bright blue eyes and looked at her mom with distaste.

"You know it pumpkin," she grinned as she walked out of the room and went to the bathroom, after she closed the door she turned on the water and pulled the lever to make the water switch from tub to shower. She stripped out of her clothes, setting her watch and earrings onto the side of the sink and waited a few moments before she stepped into the water, letting out a quiet groan of appreciation at the feeling of the hot water running over her body.

As she stood in the water, her knee throbbing Minnie ran her fingers through her red hair, letting it wet she sighed, thinking back over the past six months. The attack of New York had all but destroyed the city, and hearing about the plan to nuke New York was terrifying to her, though Tony said she would have been perfectly safe in the Arc Reactor room, had something like that happened, she wasn't convinced. She had stayed down in the Arc Reactor room for almost three hours before deciding it was worth it to go up and investigate. Her knee had been swollen and extremely hard to walk on, the size of a cantaloupe Tony had helpfully pointed out, but she'd sat in the elevator, letting it take her up from the basement to the first floor, and then from the lobby she'd taken Tony's private elevator to his penthouse. When she'd gone through the lobby she could hear emergency vehicles, helicopters, and people on the ground so she had assumed the fighting was over. After making it to Tony's elevator and pressing the floor for Tony's penthouse she leaned against the wall to support herself, hissing in discomfort as she tried to breathe evenly, in through the nose, out through the mouth, walking hurt, but staying still was not an option.

Stepping out onto the floor she found the top floor in chaos, Tony was talking to Pepper, there was people she'd never seen before, glass everywhere, and even the floors were smashed. She leaned in the doorway to the elevator for a moment, taking in the scene in front of her before a man who was sitting on the couch moved his hand from his eyes and seemed to notice her standing there. Taking in her appearance he noticed the wounded knee and stood quickly. "Here," he spoke, drawing the attention of a woman with short red hair who was wearing a sort of a catsuit and was talking to a man in a suit.

"Thank you," Minnie said, accepting the help as he wrapped her arm around his shoulders and brought her over to the couch he'd just vacated.

"Minnie," Tony said, relief in his voice as he and Pepper joined her by the couch. "What happened? You didn't go outside-"

"No, no," she waved her hand slightly, shaking her head. "No, I ended up down in the Arc Reactor room." she explained, making Tony, who had been bending over to look at her straighten up with a sort of thoughtful, if not impressed look on his face.

"You went to the Arc Reactor room?" he asked.

"Well I just tried to think of somewhere safe." she explained making him smile almost wryly. "Was that wrong?"

"I tried to not you in the direction of my bedroom, there's a panic room in there, but wow, good job Min, you went to the safest place in the whole tower."

"Really?" she asked, smiling gently, no matter the circumstances, be it getting someone elusive on the phone or finding the safest place to hide during an alien invasion, it always feels good to be praised by your employer.

"Yeah," he nodded. "Good job." She smiled before she felt someone put a hand on her leg, exhaustion was overwhelming her, but she was sure it was a lot worse for them, these people, whoever they were.

Looking at the owner of the hand on her leg she found herself really looking at the man who had noticed her and helped her from the elevator to the couch. He was an older man, maybe ten years older than her recent thirty two, dark slightly wavy hair that looked messy, like he'd run his hands through it a half a million times. He was wearing a pair of black slacks and a black and lighter grey striped shirt she recognized of Tony's. "Your name is Minnie?" he asked as she met his dark brown eyes.

"Yeah," she nodded, not wanting to go into how her real name wasn't actually Minnie, but everyone else seemed to use the nickname more than her real name, so why not just go with it. "Yeah, I'm Minnie."

"Oh, Min, sorry, this is Bruce Banner, Bruce, Minnie." Tony explained before looking at his assistant curiously. "So, if you didn't go outside, what happened to your knee? And your face?" he added as he looked at her a little harder.

"I fell down the stairs." Minnie explained as she nodded to the emergency stairwell. "Around sixty five or sixty six, I don't remember." she said, running her own hand through her now lose hair. She'd unpinned in while she sat in the arc reactor room.

"Jesus Minnie," Pepper said softly. "You went down all those stairs?"

"Well, I figured it's like they say, in case of emergency, use stairs, right?" she asked making them nod. "Well if an alien invasion isn't an emergency, what is?"

It was Bruce who chuckled first this time, looking from her knee to meet her eyes again. "I'm afraid to have to tell you this Minnie," he said as he looked at her. "But you're going to have to go to the hospital."

"The hospitals are going to be overrun," Tony commented with a shake of his head. "The least SHIELD can do is treat it," Tony said as he picked up his phone. "Don't worry Minnie, we'll get someone to come look at you tonight." he promised as he dialed a number and then pausing to look down at her knee added. "God it's as big as a cantaloupe."

"Tony, just call the number." Minnie groaned making Bruce chuckle again.

After washing her hair and scrubbing her body she rinsed off and stepped out of the shower, plugging in her hair dryer she wrapped a towel around her hair and the other around her body, stepping out of the bathroom she walked across the hall again, opening the door to Reagan's room. "Come on Rae, get up!" she was met with groans from the teenager who had gone back to sleep. Stepping out of Reagan's room she walked over to her own bedroom, finding a pair of pants and a blouse as well as underwear and her hairbrush.

When she went back to the bathroom she slipped on her underwear and bra before she started to dry out her hair, rubbing the towel on it and then blow drying it. She heard Reagan shout something over the noise of the blow dryer and then smirked as she saw her daughter walk out of her room and go towards the kitchen. After blow drying her hair she slipped on her pants and blouse before she put on her usual work makeup, put her earrings back on and her watch and then added a necklace from the jewelry box she kept in the bathroom. "Rae," she called as she walked from the bathroom to her bedroom to pick out her shoes. A pair of kitten heeled boots wouldn't be too much on her knee. "I'm going to call the clean up and-"

"And see how the clean ups going, I know." Reagan sighed as she appeared at the end of the hallway, a bowl of cereal in her hands.

"And then I have to go over to the tower and see how that's holding up."

"Mm," Reagan said, a mouthful of cereal, crunching it for a few moments before she swallowed and asked. "Is Bruce going to be there?"

"Yes," Minnie nodded. "He's been there since the tower was declared livable remember?"

"Yeah, I know, I just mean, are you going to see him?"

"I mean, I'm sure I'll stop in and see how he's doing." she nodded as she slipped her feet into her boots. "He is overseeing the reconstruction of the labs, and Tony wants to make sure they're done to Bruce's specification as well as Tony's style." she said making Reagan grin slightly.

"I can't wait to see Uncle Tony." she said, from the moment Tony and Reagan had met almost two years previously, Tony had doted on the girl, and she had taken to him spoiling her like a fish takes to water.

"I know you can't." Minnie said as she picked up a coat, ready to take her ride over to Stark Tower. "Why were you asking about Bruce?" she asked curiously.

"Hmm?" Reagan asked before the question seemed to sink in. "Oh, no reason, just, I dunno, he seems to like you." she grinned at her mom, pushing her cereal around with her spoon.

"He's a nice guy," Minnie nodded as she checked her lipstick in the hall mirror.

"Well and he likes you." Reagan pointed out making Minnie smile lightly.

"He likes anyone who's not trying to put him in a cage." she said making Reagan roll her eyes slightly.

"No Mom, he likes you." she said before taking another bite of her cereal.

"Reagan, while I'm gone I want you to finish packing and do me a favor and dump all of the perishable food down the trash chute." she said making Reagan roll her eyes.

"Alright," she agreed, knowing Minnie wouldn't entertain the thought of a man liking her. She could barely remember the last time her mom had gone on a date after all.

"And be ready to go to the airport."

"I know mom."

"Grandpa is picking us up."

"Mom, go, do your work, I'll be fine." Reagan sighed as Minnie seemed to stall leaving. "I'm fine, just go."

"Alright," Minnie sighed back at the teenager before walking over and giving Reagan a kiss on the top of the head. "I love you."

"I love you too." she said, exasperated at the long good-bye.

With one last smile at the teenager Minnie walked back into the living room, picking up her purse and walked to the door, walking out of it and down the hall, punching in the number for the clean up crew while she walked to the elevator.

After getting downstairs and hailing a cab Minnie slipped into the back seat, giving the driver the address to Stark Tower before she called the number for the Department of Damage Control. As she spoke to the person on the other line she watched as the tower got closer and closer before the cab driver let her off alongside the building. After hanging up and texting Tony to let him know what was said she walked up the the building, scanning her security badge as she walked in.

When she got to the elevator she went to the top floor first, checking on the progress they had made up there. "Armando," she smiled at the contractor. "Give me some good news!"

"The floors are in Ms. Strong," Armando smiled as she walked over. "We're going to lay them tomorrow and Tuesday and then after Thanksgiving we'll be back to finish the walls," he told her making her nod as she looked around. It was really remarkable how much had been done in the past six months.

"It looks fantastic in here Armando," she said before nodding to the bedroom. "Okay, talk to me about the bathroom." she said, walking towards it, with him in tow.

When Minnie was done getting updates on the penthouse area she walked over to the stairs and walked down to the lab Bruce and Tony were putting together for themselves. Walking in she tapped on one of the glass walls. "Dr. Banner," she smiled making Bruce turn around. "Hey."

"Minnie, hey," he smiled. "Hey, how's it going?"

"I could ask you the same question, you sure you're okay in here with all this work going on?" she asked as she nodded to the doorway.

"Hm? Oh, yeah, yeah it's okay." he nodded. "I got a message from Tony saying some of our new equipment was here so I wanted to get it installed as quickly as possible." he explained, gesturing to the work he himself had been doing.

"I see that," Minnie smiled as she looked around. "You not going anywhere for Thanksgiving?" she asked as she looked away from one glistening screen to the man in front of her.

"Oh- Ah- No. No, I don't really have much family." he explained. "I'll just hold up here, and you know, probably just get some more work done in here." he shrugged. "What about you?"

"Reagan and I leave for California today." she nodded.

"She's out of school already?"

"Yeah, she's got this week off and then I pulled her out for next Monday because we'll be flying back to New York then." she explained.

"Ah, yeah, that makes sense." he seemed to pause, thinking for a moment. "Is Tony flying back with you?"

"No, he's doing some more work out in California, I think he's going to try and be here for the New Year though," she explained.

"So it'll be just you and Reagan?"

"Yeah, but it's fine, we love traveling." she nodded.

"Well, do you need a ride from the airport?"

"Excuse me?" the offer had been such a surprise she wasn't sure she heard him correctly.

"Well I-" he grinned slightly as he shrugged. "I mean, I'll be here, so I thought you may want a ride, from the airport." he offered. "I have the car Tony leased for me, and you guys don't want to spend money on a cab, or a car."

"That would actually be really helpful. Are you sure you don't mind?" she asked, relieved at the thought of not having to get a cab from JFK back to Midtown.

"No, of course not. It's the least I could do." he smiled at her making her smile back.

"Well, I would really appreciate that, thank you Bruce." she said, surprised and touched at the offer. Being Tony's assistant people so rarely thought of her needs, aside from what she needed to keep doing her job.

"Anytime," he smiled at her, his eyes flickering over her for a moment as she looked at her phone. She had spent an hour going over everything with Armando and she didn't want to leave Reagan alone for too long, lest she get onto the computer and forget to do her packing.

"Oh- Bruce, I have to go, but um, have you eaten today?"

"No, I mean, I had some oatmeal for breakfast." he told her, noting how distracted she seemed he stepped a little closer. "Everything okay?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah it's fine, I just have to make sure Reagan's all packed and ready to go, and the car service just texted me confirming the pick-up time." she explained before smiling at Bruce. "The fun never ends." she sighed making him chuckle and nod.

"No kidding."

"Okay, Bruce, I'm having some food send over for you, please make sure you remember to eat," she said as she began to type on her phone.

"Minnie, I can get my own food, I am an adult." he reminded her making her grin.

"Tony says that all the time, and yet the man can't make an omelette." she pointed out making him nod with a laugh.

"I'm not Tony Stark." he reminded her. "I can fend for myself. I promise."

"Are you sure?" she asked. "It's really no trouble, Gino's down the street with deliver."

"Or I can just walk to Gino's." he reminded her. "Honestly, before I lived here I was living in third world countries, trust me, I'll be fine, you don't need to worry about me."

"I'm a mom, it's what I do." she chuckled, his mouth spreading in a smile.

"You're right, you're a mom, now go be a mom to the people who need you to be one, your daughter, and your boss." she laughed at that before she nodded.

"Okay,"

"Go on," he waved her towards the door, turning with a shake of her head she started to the door, only pausing when he called "Oh, and Minnie?"

"Yeah?"

"Have a good time." he smiled at her warmly, making her smile back.

"Thank you Bruce."

"And text me your arrival times so I can come get you."

"Again, thank you." she said as she started to open the door to the lab.

"Anytime," he nodded as she stepped out of the lab and then turned back to what he was doing, a smile on his face when he realized he could smell the traces of her perfume over the scent of new lab equipment.

* * *

 _ **That's right Minnie's a mom in this version, I thought it would add a little more depth to Minnie, get to see a side of her y'all didn't get to see until Ever Present Past. Reagan will have a pretty interesting story line in the future, but for the meantime, I hope you like her, I hope you like this new version, and I hope you liked the little bit of Bruce and Minnie interacting ;)**_

 _ **Please don't hesitate to review, I love getting the reviews and it encourages me to write more and write faster.**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Hey everyone, so sorry this took so long to get out, but here's Chapter 3! I'll be posting Chapter 4 either tonight or tomorrow night, I haven't decided yet, but it will be within the nest 24 hours! I hope you enjoy!**_

* * *

 _Minnie was in a dark room, her knee hurting, the soft blue glow and hum of the massive arc reactor making her blink a few times before her eyes adjusted, looking around the room she hissed softly as she put weight onto her knee and then walked over to a control panel. Had the control panel always had a TV on it? Turning the TV on she could see the events unfolding upstairs, she could see the aliens coming through, killing first-responders, killing civilians, killing everyone and everything in their path. Tears streamed down her face as her breath caught in her chest, feeling her chest tighten as she tried to gasp for air before the TV screen suddenly went white, she could hear screams upstairs, and as she looked up she felt the entire building shake. It knocked her off her feet. When she tried to stand, she looked up, only to see the ceiling coming towards her, a scream ripped through her throat as-_

" _Mom_!" Minnie opened her eyes with a gasp before looking around. She panted softly before looking over at Reagan who had taken off her headphones and was looking at her mom with concern. "Are you okay?"

She was on the plane. The flight to California from New York, they were sitting in first class, behind some b-movie actor that Minnie vaguely remembered from some TV show from her childhood. "Yeah- Yeah baby, I'm okay." she nodded as she ran a hand over her hair. "I- I didn't scream out loud did I?"

"No, you were just whimpering a bit." she explained with a frown. "Were you dreaming about New York again?"

"Yes," she sighed. "Yes I was." she let out a small chuckle, leaning down to get her purse and extradite her credit card before she then pressed the button to call a flight attendant. "Can I please buy a glass of white wine? Chardonnay if you have it, if not, whatever you have." she asked, holding out her card. The flight attendant left and then returned a few moments later with the card, the receipt and Minnie's glass of wine. "Thank you." she said as she signed the paper and then took her card back and taking a sip of the wine, leaning her head back against the seat for a moment as she swallowed. "What are you watching Reagan?" Minnie knew the answer to that, Reagan was watching her, but she hoped asking the question would make the girl refocus her attention on her phone screen.

"Hm?" Reagan looked at her phone screen and then back to Minnie before turning her attention back to the phone screen. "Oh it's a video talking about mysterious disappearances." Reagan explained.

"Oh yeah?" Minnie asked as she took another sip of her wine. "Who are they talking about? Amelia Earhart?"

"No I think she was on the first list, this is a second video. Right now they're talking about some kid from Missouri in the 80's." she explained.

"Oh yeah, Peter Quill," Minnie nodded. "I remember hearing about that when I was growing up. I was eight when it happened in Missouri but my parents were still adamant about not letting us kids go out alone.'

"I thought you grew up on a farm?" Reagan asked making Minnie chuckle.

"Well, yeah, but you know, the school bus would come pick us up, usually we'd be allowed to go to the end of the driveway and wait for it ourselves, but Grandpa would drive us to the end of the driveway, and wait in the truck until the bus came, and he's pick us up at the end of the day, we couldn't go to friend's houses, we couldn't go on trail rides by ourselves," she shook her head as she remembered it.

"That sounds like it sucked." Reagan said as she looked at her phone screen which had gone dark.

"Baby, you have no idea." Minnie chuckled as she looked at the girl.

"So they never found him?"

"Nope." Minnie replied. "Never found a body or anything."

"Huh." Reagan said before turning her eyes back to her phone screen, putting her headphones on and resuming the video.

* * *

Two hours later they had landed, collected their baggage and had gotten the keys to the rental car and were on their way to Malibu. "Do you want me to drop you off first or do you want to see Tony?" Minnie asked as she merged in the heavy LA traffic leaving the airport.

"I want to see Tony." Reagan replied making Minnie nod.

"Okay." she said as the teenager leaned over to start fiddling with the car radio, finally settling on an oldies station and singing along while she rolled down the window and propped her feet up on the dashboard. Minnie chuckled softly and shook her head as she continued to drive.

The ride from LAX to Malibu took about another hour, and when they got to Tony's house Reagan had been complaining for some time that she needed to pee. Pulling up to the gate Minnie reached out and pressed her thumb against the fingerprint scanner, when it beeped and the gate started to open Reagan groaned. "Oh my god could this go any slower?"

"You can get out and pee in those plants?" Minnie offered dryly making Reagan roll her eyes.

"God, mom, gross." she said with distaste before the gate finally opened and Minnie pulled up to the front door.

The two got out of the car and Minnie unlocked the door to the house, looking over at Reagan. "You remember where the bathroom is?" she asked, noticing Reagan was already on her way there. "I'll be downstairs, come find me when you're done. And be quiet, I'm sure Pepper is sleeping."

"Kay!" Reagan called as she shut the door to the bathroom behind her. Minnie chuckled softly and then walked down the spiral stairs to the lab she knew Tony was holed up in. Punching her access code the cool voice of JARVIS greeted her as she entered.

"Welcome Ms. Strong."

"Thank you JARVIS," Minnie said as she stepped in, noticing Tony working at his workbench.

"How was the flight?" he asked as she walked into the room a little further.

"We sat behind David Hasselhoff." she shrugged making him look up with a raised eyebrow.

"That's pretty cool."

"Yeah, Reagan knew him from the Sponge-Bob Movie so that made me feel old."

"Made you feel old? God, I feel ancient." he grumbled before looking back at what he was doing. "Where is she anyways?"

"Bathroom, she'll be down in a minute." Minnie explained before she opened her work bag and pulled out a few folders. "The updates on the tower, the updates on the cleanup, it's all there." she told him as she set the folders down at his elbow.

"Oh, great," Tony said, setting down the soldering iron and picking up the folder on top. "How's Bruce?"

"He's overseeing everything very closely," Minnie said as she looked over Tony's shoulder at the paperwork she'd given him. "That's the new lab," she said as she pointed to the pictures she'd taken when she had been there.

"I can see that." Tony replied making her give his shoulder a small push. "Why are you avoiding the question."

"Which question?" Minnie asked.

"How's Bruce?"

"Okay, is there some sort of universal plot where people are trying to get me and Bruce Banner together?" she asked, a hint of exasperation on her voice.

"What? Why would you ask that? Who else have you talked to?"

"My daughter," Minnie replied making Tony grin as said daughter walked downstairs and punched in her own code to get into the lab.

"Speak of the devil- Hey Princess!" Tony beamed as he stood up and held his arms out making Reagan grin and rush into them.

"Hi Tony," she beamed up at him.

"How you doing kiddo? You driving your mom crazy?"

"Other way 'round." Reagan laughed making Minnie roll her eyes.

"Yeah I bet," Tony replied as he turned to look at Minnie, grinning at her widely, keeping his arm around Reagan's shoulders. "Hey, Rae, There's a present for you in one of the cars." he told her making her perk up.

"Which one?"

"Which one's your favorite?"

"The Roadster," She looked up at him excitedly making him chuckle and pat her between the shoulders.

"Go look." he encouraged her making her run over to the car excitedly.

"What did you buy her?"

"Nothing. I made her something." Tony replied as he watched the teenager rip the plain brown paper wrapping off of the box he'd put her gift into.

"It's a new phone!" Reagan said excitedly as she looked up at the two adults. "Oh this is so cool."

"Glad you like it Kiddo," Tony said to Reagan before lowering his voice to talk to Minnie. "You got one too, unlimited call, text, web, plus a tracker that allows you to track her, track everyone with one of these phones, myself included, and there's a tracker in all of the suits. Rhody's too." he explained making her look at him with a small frown.

A tracker in every suit, one that she could use and control to see where he was and where each of the suits were, as well as her daughter, as well as Rhodey, that was a little unsettling. "And you'll be able to see where we are won't you?" she asked making him nod.

"Yeah, of course." he replied, reaching out to put his hand on Minnie's shoulder. "It's just smarter this way." he told her. "I'm going to send one back with you to New York, for Banner." he explained.

"Oh my god, there's JARVIS on this!" Reagan looked up from the phone excitedly.

"That's right Kiddo! You've got J wherever you go."

"I'm happy to know you approve Ms. Reagan." the AI replied from within the walls of the lab making Reagan look around the room and then back at her new phone as she beamed.

"There's no cell disruptions, there's no service issues." Tony continued in the lower voice to Minnie. "And that power won't ever die. It's got a miniature arc reactor running it."

"How miniature?" Minnie asked looking from her overjoyed teenager to Tony, her eyes flickering to the arc reactor in his chest and then back to his eyes.

"Smaller." he replied, giving her arm a gentle rub. "Gotta keep in touch with everyone, right?" he asked and she gave him a gentle smile.

"How are you doing Tony?" she asked making him lick his lips before he let his eyes meet hers. He was quiet for a long moment before Minnie stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. He was tense for a moment before his arms snaked around her waist and his forehead dropped to her shoulder. "Some days are better than others," she whispered. "Right?"

"Yeah." he replied shortly before he let go of his assistant and pulled back, moving his hands to her arms. "Keep an eye on her huh?" he nodded towards Reagan who was squealing over the different options her new phone had.

"Always." Minnie replied. He nodded, let out a sigh and then ran his hand over his face. "Tony- I'm only in the canyon you know? If you need anything at all or you want to come for dinner-"

"No, no." Tony shook his head. "No, I- That's your family stuff." he explained with a shake of his head and a chuckle.

"Well you and Pepper are more than welcome." Minnie insisted making him smile.

"Thanks Min," he said gently, brushing a finger over her chin. "Now- Why don't you guys get out of here. I've got some more work to finish up." he told her as he rubbed his hands together. "I'm sure your family is waiting for you."

"Rae," Minnie called as she looked over at her daughter. "Come say thank you to Tony, we've got to head out." Reagan scrambled to her feet, running over to Tony and throwing her arms around him making him chuckle.

"Ooh- Gotcha." he laughed as he looked down at Reagan. "You happy?" she nodded. "Good. You decide you want to get away from all the cousins and your mom says it's okay you text me and I'll come rescue you. Cool?"

"Cool." Reagan grinned making him stroke her hair affectionately.

"Cool." he replied before letting go. "Go on get outta here, I'll see you later." he assured her making her nod.

"Tony, just in the canyon if you need me at all." Minnie reminded him making him nod.

"Got it." he said before picking up a box and handing it to her. "One for you, one for Bruce." he reminded her and she nodded back.

"Got it." she replied.

* * *

When they got to the property Minnie punched in a code on the call box outside the gates to the Bad Ox Ranch, thinking about the difference in technology between the house she had grown up in and the one Tony currently owned and the few miles between them. Approaching the house Minnie chuckled at the sight of her father moving down the steps to the house and walking over to Reagan's door, opening it for her. He'd obviously been waiting outside for them when she'd texted from Tony's saying they were on their way. "Hi Grandpa!" Reagan beamed at the older man, squeaking at the huge hug he gave her.

"How's my little Sugar Snap Pea?" he asked making her laugh.

"I'm good." she said, picking up the backpack she'd brought as a carry on.

"And just where do you think you're going?" Nathan Strong asked as he looked at Minnie, making her laugh as she opened the trunk of the rental.

"I'm going to get my bags." she replied.

"No ma'am, not on this property, on this property your dad will get the bags. It's bad enough you didn't let me come get you at the airport after I said I would."

"Dad, I needed a car in case Tony needed me, I can-"

"I know you can, but I'm going to." he told her before winking at Reagan who giggled. "Go on inside Sugar Pea, your cousins are real excited to see you." Reagan went inside without another thought and Minnie stepped away from the trunk, her hands raised in a surrender.

"I know when I've been beat." she said and he chuckled before holding his arms out to her. She walked into his arms, letting him give her a long hug before he pulled back. "How you doing dad?"

"Had a physical a few weeks ago, fit as a fiddle." he reported with a grin. "How's the knee?"

"It's on the mend." she replied with a nod.

"Good, glad to hear it," Nate replied. "Now why don't you go on inside and say hi to the family. I'm going to bring your stuff to the guest house, you're bunking with Tabby and Paul." he explained making Minnie pause.

"Yeah, how is that?" she asked a little uncertainty, Nate wincing in reply.

"It's… Not great." he answered honestly. "They've been sniping at each other all afternoon. Me'n'your mom are hoping it's just a phase."

"Yeah, fingers crossed." Minnie replied softly before she walked into the house to greet the whole family.

After the greetings, the catching up, having some food and declaring herself exhausted and it was late, being after midnight, Minnie was finally able to escape to the guest house where she plugged in her old phone, she'd deal with getting everything done with her new phone in the morning. As she settled into bed, the exhaustion starting to get to her the phone lit up making her look over at it. One unread text message from a few hours before.

" **I hope you and Reagan had a good flight. Happy Thanksgiving, See you in a week. :)** " Minnie smiled as she read the text and bit her lip before typing out a reply.

" **Thanks! See you then, can't wait! :)** " She smiled as she set her phone down and rolled over, pulling the blankets over her shoulders and let out a sigh, as she fell asleep with a smile on her face.

* * *

 _ **Alright, I hope you liked this chapter, admittedly it was a little bit of a filler chapter, but the next chapter will be a lot better, I promise you that! I've got some great plans for how to disrupt the MCU timeline and bring my own story into it all.**_

 _ **I hope you all enjoy!**_

 _ **Please don't forget to review if you feel like it!**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Okay, like I promised the next chapter! Wheeeew I refused to go to bed until this was written and I followed through! I just hope you guys like it, and yes, this is where I'm going to divert from the MCU but also, I'm going to be finding ways to weave the MCU into this story. I hope you guys like it!**_

* * *

"How was your Thanksgiving Minnie?" Minnie took a moment to pause at the question, thinking about the answer. "The day itself was the usual familial chaos," she reported. "My sister and her husband were fighting all day-"

"Which sister is this?"

"Tabby, my younger sister," she explained and Dr. Norma nodded.

"Right, Abby is divorced?" she asked as she looked down at her notes.

"Abby's like me, we were never married." Minnie explained making her nod again.

"That's right, and Sonny's divorced."

"Yes."

"And was Sonny still as secretive about his job as usual?"

"To the rest of the family, yes." Minnie nodded.

"But not to you?"

"No," Minnie shook her head.

"Why is that?"

"Well," Minnie licked her lips and then took a sip of her coffee- it was still warm, thanks to the awesome coffee mug she'd bought. "He and I have similar sorts of jobs."

"Your brother is also a PA?"

"No no," Minnie shook her head. "No, my brother works for a security intelligence agency."

"Something akin to the CIA or the FBI?" Dr. Norma asked, lifting an eyebrow as Minnie looked around the office. White wallpaper with a sort of green palm leaf print, the couch she sat on was brown leather, as were the two matching chairs across from her, one of with Dr. Norma sat in, her narrow frame looking lanky and angular like always. There was something about Dr. Norma, something… Pointy. It was the only word she could think of to describe the older woman with her pointed chin, her pointed nose and her perfectly angular grey bob. "Minnie?"

"Sort of." Minnie replied as she quickly met Dr. Norma's eyes.

"So what makes your job as a personal assistant so similar to your brother's job as an intelligence agent?"

"We work for the same sort of people." she explained. "I mean, Mr. Stark works alongside my brother's bosses."

"So that gives the two of you something to talk about."

"It does, yes," Minnie said, her eyes flickering to the window.

"Minnie? I get the feeling there's something you're not telling me?"

"Well it- It happened the day after Thanksgiving." Minnie explained as she looked back at Dr. Norma. "I got a phone call."

* * *

Minnie set the bags down on the floor of the living room. "Mom, you're hardcore when it comes to Black Friday deals." she chuckled, her mom Cecilia giving a playful laugh.

"You have no idea."

"God- mom- I thought you were just going to leave me there." Tabby said as she rubbed her shoulder, rolling it slightly.

"If you hadn't moved faster I might have." Cecilia replied with a grin. "Okay, Tabby, Abby, go take those bags down to the basement, Minnie, go make sure nothing fell out in the van."

"Got it." Minnie replied as her older and younger sister started to carry the bags down to the basement. Minnie walked outside, the morning was brisk, but not cold. It wouldn't really get cold in California for another month, maybe two. Sometimes winter didn't even come around until February and it would leave around March. As she checked the back of the van for hidden packages or dropped items she felt her phone vibrate a few times in her pocket. Sitting on one of the seats she checked the number, and recognizing the area code as a New York area code she chuckled softly before answering. "This is Ms. Strong." she said.

"Uh, yeah, Ms. Minnie Strong?" the voice on the other end sounded unsure. The caller was female, and she was definitely from New York, or somewhere back east. Maybe Long Island.

"This is she."

"Hi, um, Wow, I honestly can't believe I got through. I've been trying different numbers and different extensions for awhile now."

"Okay," Minnie chuckled lightly, wondering if this was just another fan, someone who was trying to get as close to Tony as possible. She'd had to be the last line of defense against crazy fans and stalkers before, but there was something about this call, something different. "Can I ask your name?"

* * *

Minnie walked into the Malibu house with purpose, Pepper was sitting on the couch, drinking a cup of coffee and watching the news when Minnie walked into the living room. "Morning Minnie," she said, not looking too concerned about the sudden appearance of Tony's assistant. She was long used to Minnie suddenly appearing at all hours, and Minnie was sure she was damn happy it wasn't her job anymore.

"Morning Pepper," Minnie smiled at the other woman. "Tony downstairs?" Minnie was surprised her voice was as even as it was, sure that any moment now her voice would start shaking, that she'd let Pepper know something was wrong and that somehow the other woman would figure it out.

"Yeah, oh, bring him a cup of coffee." Pepper pointed to the kitchen. "Get yourself a cup too, no offense Minnie but you look like you could use one."

"You have no idea." Minnie replied as she walked into the kitchen and got a mug, pouring Tony and herself a cup. When Pepper looked at her curiously she chuckled lightly. "Ah, Black Friday shopping with my mom and sisters." she explained making Pepper nod.

"Yeah, I imagine that'll do it." she said and Minnie nodded.

"Yeah," she chuckled humorlessly as she added what she liked to the coffee and then picked up the two cups and walked towards the stairs. "See you in a bit Pepper." Pepper replied with a yawn and a wave as she settled back onto the couch, changing the channel to a different news station.

Looking over when the door opened Tony frowned seeing Minnie and then looked at his watch. "Minnie, its nine fifteen. What are you doing here?"

"I just got a call," Minnie said as she looked at Tony. "My personal cell,"

"Was it a personal call?" he asked as he reached for the coffee she was holding.

"No, this one." she handed him the other mug, pulling hers out of reach. "And no, it was a call for you." she said pointedly. "Did you ever meet a woman named Dara Klein?"

Tony was sipping his coffee the moment he'd taken it from Minnie, but stopped mid-sip at the question, his eyes lifting to Minnie's and staring at her for a long moment before he lowered the cup, sniffing slightly he rubbed his nose before giving a small jerk of his shoulder. "And what if I did?" he asked, standing up and turning around, walking away from the workbench he'd been sitting at.

"Tony," Minnie said, her voice laced with warning as she followed him. "How do you know her?"

"How do you think I know her?" he asked before looking back at Minnie. "Knew her. It was a long time ago Min."

"About seventeen years ago?" Minnie asked as she looked up at her boss, her hands on her hips. Tony looked down for a moment before letting his dark eyes meet hers again.

"Yeah."

"Yeah." Minnie replied before rubbing her hands over her face. "Oh Tony."

* * *

Minnie smiled when she stepped off of Tony's private jet and saw Bruce waiting by the hangar, stepping out of the pale green Prius he'd been leased. She looked over at the pilot of the private jet who was holding her bag and smiled at him thankfully. "Thanks Dave," she said softly before stepping down the stairs, sighing with exhaustion when Bruce approached.

"Just you?" he asked and she nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, Reagan said she wanted to stay the extra couple days, spend some time with her cousins," Minnie explained. "See her friends she's been missing since we moved to New York."

"That's nice she gets to see her friends." Bruce said and Minnie nodded.

"It is," she agreed.

"So what brought you back a few days early?" he asked and Minnie shook her head. "Oh here, let me-" Minnie looked down as Bruce leaned down, taking the bag from her hand.

"Oh no I can-"

"It's okay, please," Bruce smiled as he straightened up, giving her a smile. "Hop in, tell me about it in the car." Minnie smiled back as she nodded and walked over to the passenger's door, opening it and slipping into the car. She dropped her purse at her feet and let her head fall back against the headrest. When Bruce got in she opened her eyes and smiled at him wearily.

"Bruce, I just want to say how much I truly appreciate you coming to get me, it's not many people who would come all the way to LaGuardia at one am to pick me up." she said making him shrug as he started the car, the heat turning on full blast.

"I was happy to do it." he said as he looked over at her. "So come on, what's going on?"

"Ah. Well. There's a girl- a woman- in Long Island." she said slowly. "Who has a son." She looked over at Bruce and bit her lip before shaking her head. "He might be Tony's son." she explained making Bruce's eyebrows raise in surprise.

"Oh-" he said, obviously startled by the news. "That was… Not what I was expecting."

"And yet, kind of not surprising right?" she asked making him laugh lightly.

"Oh god yeah." he replied instantly, this time making her laugh. "So, you came back to, what, kill her?"

"No!" she laughed as she looked at him, not missing his teasing smile. "What am I, the Black Widow?" .

"No, definitely not." he snorted. "So, why did you come back really?"

"I came back to meet her." Minnie explained as she looked at Bruce. "To meet the boy and… Get a DNA sample." she gave him a small smile as he nodded. "So I'm going out to Long Island tomorrow and meeting him, the mom and getting a cheek swab."

"Well," Bruce said slowly. "If you want help with that, I'm not doing anything tomorrow." he said as he looked over at her, making her look back at him.

"You don't have-"

"Minnie, I know I don't have to." he assured her. "In fact, let's assume from now on, when I offer to do something, I know I don't have to do it." he looked at her with a small smile. "But I want to."

"Okay, yeah, I'd like the company." Minnie chuckled softly before she nodded.

"And I have the car," he pointed out making her chuckle again.

"I have keys to all of Tony's cars." she reminded him. "I just have driving stick."

"What?" he looked almost offended at that. "No, driving stick is great."

"Having to clutch your way through Manhattan traffic? No thank you." Minnie shook her head making him give a small shrug.

"Okay, I see what you mean, but still. It's not that bad." he shook his head.

"Mhmm," she replied as they started to go through the tunnel. When they got to her apartment building Bruce got out of the car and pulled her suitcase from the trunk, setting it on the sidewalk and lifting the handle before smiling at Minnie as she stood on the sidewalk, placing her hand over his. "Thank you again, It was- I'm happy you offered."

"Anytime," Bruce said, running his thumb along the tops of Minnie's fingers lightly before he cleared this throat, looking down and smiling slightly before looking back at her. "So, tomorrow, what time?" he asked.

"Um, it'll take a little while to get to Great Neck, maybe we can leave around eleven?" she asked as she looked at her phone. "Oh- That reminds me." she opened her purse and pulled out the small box with Bruce's new phone in it. "Tony sent this along for you." she smiled.

"Oh uh, thanks." he said as he took the box and looked at it before looking at her curiously.

"It's a new phone." she explained. "But, tomorrow?"

"Yeah, tomorrow at eleven. I'll pick you up." he smiled making her nod.

"Great, see you then." she replied before taking her bag, slinging her purse over her shoulder and walking to the door, giving the doorman a nod as she stepped inside.

"You're home early Ms. Strong."

"Trust me, I know." Minnie replied.

* * *

"So how did it go?"

"I'm sorry?" Minnie asked as she looked at Dr. Norma.

"The meeting? With the boy and his mother?" she asked. "How did that go?"

"Oh," Minnie chuckled slightly and then took another sip of her coffee. "Well,"

* * *

"This is it." Bruce said as they pulled up at the house, looking at it Minnie felt herself wishing the house didn't look as nice as it did. She didn't know why she felt such animosity towards the woman who had called, Ms. Klein, but there was something in her that wanted it to all be fake, that wanted her to be lying. "Hey," Bruce reached out, touching her arm gently, drawing her attention from the house, back to him. "I know this is stressful for you, but it'll be okay." he told her making her nod.

"I know it will. It'll be like the other times, the kid won't be Tony's, we'll figure out a small settlement to get them to leave him alone, and that'll be that." she nodded. But this wasn't like the other ones. The few other times this had happened Tony hadn't remembered the women, even seeing pictures he hadn't remembered. But he remembered Dara Klein without a picture. And that bothered Minnie.

Getting out of the car she straightened her skirt and waited for Bruce to join her on the sidewalk before the two of them walked up to the house. Minnie pressed the doorbell and gripped her briefcase, the swab test inside. When the door opened Minnie gave the woman on the other side a somewhat forced smile. "Ms. Klein?" she asked. She was too young to have a sixteen year old son, there was no way.

"I'm one of them, yeah." she replied, looking Minnie over as she leaned in the doorway. "Who're you?"

"I'm looking for Dara Klein?" Minnie asked, a little taken aback.

"Oh. Hang on." and the door was slammed in their faces. Astonished Minnie looked back up at Bruce who chuckled lightly.

"Well, that's… Welcoming." he commented, Minnie chuckling lightly. A moment later the door opened again and this time a woman a few years older than Minnie stood there, giving them each cautious smiles.

"Ms. Strong?" she looked at Minnie who nodded.

"Welcome, I'm Dara," she said and then glanced at Bruce. "Your lawyer?"

"No-"

"Oh god no-"

Minnie and Bruce had spoken at the same time and shared a slightly amused look before Minnie looked back at Dara and shook her head. "No. This is Dr. Bruce Banner, he's a friend of Tony's, he's here to help with the DNA test." she explained.

"What's to help, you're going to swab his cheek." Dara said making Minnie nod.

"Yeah, that's true. I also didn't want to make the drive alone." Minnie admitted making Dara chuckle lightly.

"I get that." she agreed. "Well, please, come on in, get out of the cold." Dara said, opening the door further. "Can I take your coats?"

"Thank you," Minnie said as she slipped off the cranberry read wool coat she had been wearing, handing it to Dara who accepted it and hung it on a coat rack by the door. Bruce did the same as Minnie looked around the open front room in the ranch style home. "You have a beautiful home," Minnie commented as she looked over at Dara.

"Thanks, it's my parent's home." she explained.

"Oh," Minnie replied and Dara nodded. "Are these your parents?" she gestured to a picture on the wall of two people in wedding clothes.

"Yeah, the happiest day of my mom's life." Dara smiled.

"They make a handsome couple, how long have they been together?" Minnie asked.

"Uh, they were together for over thirty years until dad died." Dara replied.

"I'm so sorry."

"No, no, it's okay, Tony actually came to the funeral." Dara shrugged as she crossed her arms.

"He came to your dad's funeral?" Minnie asked as Dara nodded.

"Mhm,"

"And that's where you two…. Met?" Minnie asked and Dara chuckled lightly.

"No. I've known Tony for a long time. My dad worked for his dad." she explained. Minnie looked at Bruce whose eyebrows rose before he nodded back to Dara. "Why don't we go into the kitchen? I'll make us some tea, we can talk, I'll get Jace out of the basement." she offered as she lead the way. "Please, follow me."

Minnie and Bruce followed, Minnie looking at all the pictures hung on the walls, the art that littered the hallways until they got to the kitchen where Dara set to filling up the teapot. "Dr. Banner?"

"Please," Bruce nodded.

"Ms. Strong?"

"Yeah, tea would be great, thanks." Minnie nodded.

"Jace is just down in the basement, I'll grab him just as soon as I get this set up." Dara said before Minnie pointed to the door Dara had nodded at.

"Through here? I can go get him if you like."

"Thanks, that'd be good." she nodded. "When that boy starts working on a project, he really gets into it." Minnie nodded before casting a glance at Bruce who raised his eyebrows at the comment before she opened the door to the basement, stepping down the narrow steps. When she got to the bottom of the stairs she looked around the bright basement room, taking it all in before she really focused on what she was seeing. Blueprints, half finished projects, toolboxes and a boy with dark messy hair sitting at a workbench, a soldering iron in his hand as he worked at building something.

"Can you turn on that light?" he asked making Minnie jump, she hadn't realized he'd noticed her.

"Sorry?"

"The light, to your left, it's on a dimmer, can you turn it up for me please?" he asked making Minnie nod.

"Sure," she said as she walked to the dimmer and slowly started to increase the light just above his head.

"Perfect." he said quickly and she let go of the dimmer.

"What are you working on?" Minnie asked and he glanced up, looking her over quickly before looking back at what he was doing.

"I'm in a robotics club," he explained. "I'm creating the circuit board."

"You like robots?" Minnie asked softly and he shrugged.

"I mean, it's all pretty easy, they just want me on the team because I'm the smartest person in school." he replied.

"But do you like it?" Minnie asked and he chuckled slightly before lifting his eyes to hers. God his eyes were so similar.

"Yeah." he gave the same half grin she had seen on Tony's face a million time before and in that moment Minnie was sure she knew what the test results were going to be.

* * *

"Jesus Christ," Minnie said as she and Bruce walked outside of the Klein household.

"Yeah," Bruce chuckled.

"That kid- I mean did you see the things he could do?"

"No I- I know." Bruce nodded in agreement as they walked to his car.

"Look, Bruce," Minnie looked up at him, catching his hand as she held her briefcase still in her other hand. "We can't let this affect us too much, until we get the results from the test back." she reminded him, making him nod.

"I know." he agreed. "I just- I kind of want him to be Tony's, you know?"

"I know." she nodded with a smile. "He's a sweet kid. It's hard not to root for him."

"Exactly," Bruce nodded. "But why don't we bring this back to the tower so I can see if we really should be rooting for him?"

"Good idea," Minnie agreed, walking over to the car and waiting for him to open the door. When he did she slipped in and set the briefcase on her lap, looking back at the house. When she saw Dara standing at the window she gave a small wave, Dara returning it with a smile while Bruce got into the driver's seat.

* * *

"So how did it go?" Dr. Norma asked making Minnie sigh. "Did you get the results?"

"Yeah, we got them," she nodded. "And you know, we're not disclosing anything to the public right now." she said as she shrugged. "But…"

* * *

"Hey Min, what's the news?"

"You knew about him didn't you?" Minnie asked. "You knew about Jace a long time ago?"

"I… Wondered." Tony said after a long moment. "I met him at the funeral."

"Tony, Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"Dara was seeing a guy back then, the guy was trying to be a dad figure for Jace. I- I didn't want to confuse him." he paused before adding. "And it's what Dara wanted. She never outright told me, but the math added up."

"So why didn't you-"

"Why didn't I do something? I did. I waited."

"Tony that doesn't count." Minnie sighed as she ran a hand over her face, rubbing her eye with the palm of her hand. "Okay, so, what do you want me to do now?"

"I want to see them." Tony said making Minnie nod.

"Okay." she agreed. "Well, I can arrange for that. When?"

"How about sometime after Christmas?"

"Sounds good." Minnie sighed before licking her lips. "And- Tony?"

"Yeah Min?"

"If there's any other kids out there that you know about, or you think you know about or you're unsure of, please let me know now. Because it's kind of important." she said making him chuckle.

"As far as I know, he's the only one." he assured her making her nod.

"Okay, and we're going to keep this quiet for awhile, until you and Dara decide what you're going to do."

"That sounds good."

"Have you told Pepper yet?"

"Ah- No. No I think I'll tell her after Christmas."

"Tony…"

"Trust me Min, I'll tell her after Christmas." he said softly before hanging up.

* * *

"So Tony Stark is a father?"

"Apparently so."

"And what happened with you and Dr. Banner?"

"Hm?"

"During the ride back to the tower? Did anything happen?"

"Oh. Well. Actually," Minnie chuckled lightly. "Tony's news is always so overwhelming compared to my own news, but, yeah. Something happened." she nodded.

* * *

Minnie watched the city speeding by as they drove out of Long Island, back towards Manhattan before Bruce let out a soft chuckle. Looking over at the driver she smiled lightly. "What's so funny?" she asked making Bruce look over at her before looking back at the road.

"Oh it's- It's the other guy," he explained.

"What about him?" she asked.

"Well, I mean, the best way to explain it is to explain that it's kind of like we've both got a hand on the steering wheel, you know?" he asked, making Minnie nod.

"So he's aware of things you do and say?"

"Yeah, exactly. And he can make comments on things, in my head."

"Okay…?"

"And he thinks you're pretty." Bruce smiled as he looked over at Minnie making her smile.

"The Hulk thinks I'm pretty?" she asked.

"He's not the only one." Bruce replied as he looked at Minnie, giving her a gentle smile. Minnie bit her lip, looking at the window before glancing back over to him.

"You're not too bad yourself." she replied, turning her hand over to accept his hand when he moved his hand from the shifter to take her hand.

* * *

 _ **Hope you liked it!**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Okay, we are getting into the events of Iron Man 3 now! It's going to be a lot of fun to write, and I hope you enjoy! Also, feel free to leave a review and tell me what your favorite thing to do at Christmastime is!**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel. I just pretend like I do to seem cool. Is it working?**_

* * *

For those people who have never experienced it, Christmas in New York is a truly amazing time. Seeing the Tree Lighting Ceremony at Rockefeller Center, going to see performances of the Nutcracker at the New York City Ballet, driving through Dyker heights to see the lights, walking down 5th Ave. to see the window displays and of course the Bank of America Winter Village. Minnie smiled as she waved at Reagan who stood in line for the ice skating, grinning widely at Minnie before looking up as Bruce walked over with two steaming cups in his hands. "Hot Cider?" he asked. "Or Hot Chocolate?"

"Ooh, Cider," Minnie replied, accepting the cup as he handed it to her. "Thank you," she smiled, sipping the warm liquid carefully and then looking over at Reagan as she handed her money to the attendant and told them her shoe size. "It's going to be hilarious when she eats shit."

"You're her mom!" he laughed in surprise as he looked over at her, then at Reagan. "But yeah, she's definitely going to fall."

"Yeah." Minnie nodded. "And I know I'm her mom, but that doesn't mean I can't be amused at the sight of my fourteen year old taking a fall on the ice after insisting she needed to try it."

"I just always expect moms to be more concerned for their children is all." he shrugged making her scoff.

"She's a teenager, she can handle it. Didn't your mom ever laugh when you hurt yourself?"

"Ah- No." he shook his head. "No, I lost my mom when I was young." Minnie felt her face flush at the words, looking over at him sympathetically.

"Bruce, I'm sorry." she said softly, him shrugging in return.

"It was a long time ago." he said, sipping his hot chocolate. His free hand moving to find hers. Minnie smiled at the contact before scooting a little closer to him. "You going home for Christmas?"

"I fly out Christmas Eve." she nodded. "Too much to do here before then. Reagan's flying back tomorrow afternoon. You?"

"No," he shook his head and smiled. "No, uh, the only family I have is a cousin and I haven't seen her in…" he let out a breath before shaking his head again. "I haven't seen her in years."

"Might be a good time to reach out," Minnie said as she leaned into his arm. "It is Christmas." Bruce looked over at her with a small smile before shrugging.

"Maybe." was all he said and she smiled lightly, knowing he wouldn't reach out. Leaning in she kissed his cheek gently before resting her own cheek on his shoulder.

"You can come to California with me?" she offered softly making him look down at her with a half smile.

"You sure it isn't too soon for that?" he asked. "I mean your daughter doesn't even know yet."

"I'm pretty sure she knows," Minnie assured him. "I mean sure I haven't made it a point to tell her, but I'm sure she knows."

The truth was, after Thanksgiving Minnie and Bruce had been spending more time together. Neither of them wanted to call it dating yet, mostly because they hadn't been on a real date, and neither of them was sure what to call it yet, but they were trying things out. Seeing how spending time together would work for them. Bruce sighed as he laced his fingers through Minnie's and nodded, resting his cheek against her head. "I'm sure she knows too." he replied softly. Minnie was about to say something before a man's hand touched her shoulder making her lift her head and turned to see two uniformed police officers standing there.

"Ms. Strong?" the one who had touched her asked making her nod with a frown as she stood and turned.

"Yes?"

"Mr. Stark has asked us to get you to safety."

"I- I'm sorry?" she asked as he cleared his throat.

"You, Dr. Banner and your daughter need to get out of public, now." he replied.

After getting Reagan in from the ice, her knees soaked from falling the three were loaded into a police car and driven straight back to Stark Tower. As they got inside Minnie's phone began to ring, making her pause in the lobby to answer. "Tony, what's going on?"

"There was another Mandarin Attack," Tony replied, his voice laced with anxiety and stress. "He blew up The Chinese Theater." Minnie felt her breath catch in her throat at the realization that one of the most heavily populated tourist attractions in Los Angeles had been blown up, right on Hollywood Boulevard.

"Jesus," she breathed, earning an anxious look from Bruce. "But- But Tony-" her mind had stopped and she was trying to jump start it, trying to get the rational thinking side to work. "That doesn't have anything to do with us."

"Happy was there." Tony replied, his voice bitter. "I just got the call."

"Oh my god." Minnie felt her hand close around Bruce's arm, her knees shaking. "Is he-"

"I don't know yet." he answered. "He's in surgery." She was grateful for Bruce's arms around her, holding her up as she processed what was happening.

"Um," she fumbled for words for a moment before she took a breath. "Okay, don't talk to the reporters until I've had a chance to get there, Reagan's flying back tomorrow, I'll join her-"

"I've already called for the jet, it'll be ready at LaGuardia in an hour."

"Okay."

"I don't know if Bruce will be willing to come to California, but I know I want him away from the tower." Tony replied making Minnie nod even though she knew he couldn't see her.

"I- I'll talk to him." she replied.

"Okay. Let me know when you get to the airport."

"You got it." she answered before hanging up and explaining everything to the two. Reagan looked horrified while Bruce had a set look to his jaw. "Tony's concerned that you may not be safe here. If the Mandarin decides to blow up the tower, he doesn't want you to go down with it." she explained.

"I know," he replied softly. "But going to California, it sounds like walking right into the lion's den."

"It doesn't have to," Minnie said after a moment of thought.

* * *

When the flight touched down, Minnie looked over at Bruce his hands gripping the armrests of the seat, his eyes closed tight. "You okay?" she asked and he nodded after a moment as the breaks of the plane engaged.

"Yeah," he said shortly. Admittedly the flight had been a little turbulent, but Bruce had made it this far, she was really really hoping a rough landing wouldn't ruin everything. "We're good" he opened his eyes and looked at her. "I'm good." he promised softly making her nod in return.

When the plane finally slowed enough to just taxi across the runway Minnie unbuckled her seat-belt and moved over to Reagan who was sleeping in her seat. "Sweetheart," Minnie shook her shoulder gently, making her open her blue eyes and look around wearily. "We're in California."

"Cool," Reagan mumbled before she stretched her arms out, letting out a groan as she stretched. "Where's uncle Tony?"

"He's at the hospital with Happy," Minnie replied. "Which is where I'm going to go, you and Bruce are going straight to Grandma and Grandpa's okay?"

"Wait, do Grandma and Grandpa know we're coming?" she asked and Minnie nodded as she pushed a lock of hair behind Reagan's ear.

"Yeah, I called them and explained everything." she assured her.

"Okay," she sighed before looking at Bruce. "You're gonna like it there, it's a farm."

* * *

When Minnie got to the hospital she was directed to the room Tony was in, rather than being sent to a waiting room he had been given access to the doctor's lounge, and that's where he sat, watching the news, his eyes glued to the TV screen. "He's still in surgery." Tony reported the moment Minnie walked in, making her sigh.

"He may be in surgery for some time." she told him softly, walking further into the room, going to the sink against one wall and turning it on, washing her hands. "What happened Tony?"

"He clocked someone, said he didn't trust him and that he looked sketchy. Said he was going to follow him." Tony shrugged. "I thought he was overreacting."

"Who was he following?"

"I don't know, some guy. He was all worked up because Pepper had a meeting with Aldrich Killian today."

"Aldrich Killian?" Minnie knew the name. When Tony stopped manufacturing weapons and thus stopped supplying weaponry to the Army plenty of other arms companies stepped in to fill the gap, from the less than impressive Hammer Technologies to the more interesting government funded think-tanks like AIM.

"Yeah, you know him?" he asked looking over at her.

"Only by reputation," she shook her head. "I think my brother may know him though."

"Your brother?"

"Yeah- Well, he works for SHIELD," she explained and Tony nodded slowly, remembering the man he'd met before.

"Right, that's right. I met him."

"Yeah," she agreed. "I can reach out, see if he knows anything about Killian, about what he's up to."

"I'd prefer this stay out of SHIELD's ear." he replied making her shrug.

"He's my brother." she assured him as she lifted her phone up, writing a text to her brother.

A few hours passed, and then a few more, and soon the sun was coming up before a doctor came in and looked startled to see Tony and Minnie sitting on the couch in the doctor's lounge, leaning against each other, eyes glassed over, half focused on the tv in front of them, repeating the same things over and over again. Bombing, Mandarin, bodies vaporized.

"Oh," he said as he looked at the who who sat up a little quicker at the sight of the doctor. "Your friend is out of surgery. He's in the ICU." he explained.

Minnie and Tony stood as quickly as their fatigued bodies let them and found themselves walking to the ICU, when there they found Happy's room and entered, each stopping at the sight of the man in the bed. "Jesus," she whispered softly. They had him hooked up to everything, feeding, breathing, and other tubes, heart rate monitor, IV's, the works. Minnie bit her lip as she looked over Happy and shut her eyes.

"You ever tell Bruce about you and Hap?" Tony asked softly making Minnie give him a small look.

"There's nothing to tell." she replied.

"Oh really? So there wasn't a little New Year's moment with you two?"

"Tony," she scoffed softly. "That doesn't count."

"How does it not count?" he questioned.

"Because it just- it doesn't." she shook her head, smiling lightly at the memory. "It didn't mean anything, it was just one kiss."

"Happy liked it."

"I liked it too, but it just- it didn't make sense." she replied, "Happy got promoted to head of security, I was traveling too much. I mean sure, we flirted. But that's it. Mostly we just talked about how crazy you were. And how much he regretted that mullet he had."

"You guys talked about me?" Tony looked at her with a raised eyebrow as he took a seat in the corner, behind the various medical equipment. Minnie walked over to the wall, picking up his chart and looking it over.

"Of course we talked about you. Happy tried to warn me about working with you. He also tried to warn me against letting you flirt with me." she looked over the chart at him with a raised eyebrow.

"That's pointless, I was already with Pepper when I hired you."

"Yeah, but, for awhile there the office was unsure if that would last or not." she pointed out making him nod.

"Okay, that's fair." he agreed. "So what else did you two talk about?"

"Not much. He asked me about my time in the rodeo. We talked about his time as a boxer. We talked about Reagan, about my ex-"

"Woah woah, you told him about your ex?"

"I didn't tell Happy his name and I'm not telling you." she replied maybe a little sharper than she had intended to. "That's my business and Reagan doesn't need to know."

"Okay," Tony held his hands up in defeat. "But you two just couldn't make it work?"

"He's a nice guy Tony," she shrugged. "We'd have cigarettes and bitch about you being crazy. But he's not for me."

"And Banner is?" Tony asked making her sigh softly.

"I don't know." she answered honestly. "Bruce is sweet and kind, he wants to spend time with me and he gets along with Reagan. He knows how crazy my life is and he's been nothing but helpful." she smiled gently. "But there's just this thing…"

"The other guy?" she felt bad for nodding at the correct reply but, it was true.

"Yeah." she answered. "I mean, not the existence of the other guy, you know? I don't mind that, and Bruce seems like he has it mostly under control, but," she shrugged gently. "I," she paused, thinking about her words carefully. "I want a future with someone. And I don't know if there is a future with Bruce."

"It's not like he's going anywhere," Tony pointed out and she sighed.

"Tony, is this really the time to be talking about this?"

"You have anywhere else to be?" he questioned, making her scoff.

"At home, in bed." she retorted. "Making sure my daughter is alive and well." Tony sighed for a moment before he nodded slowly.

"You're right." he answered, standing up and walking over to Minnie, taking the chart from her hands. "Go home Minnie."

"Tony- No, I didn't mean- I'll stay with you."

"No, No I'm going to stay for awhile longer." he told her, looking over at his longtime bodyguard, driver and friend who lay in the bed, clinging to life.

"You sure?" she asked and he nodded.

"Yeah," he replied. "Go home, check on your kid. Driver's downstairs waiting to take you home."

"Okay," Minnie nodded before pausing. "If you need anything-"

"I'll call." he promised. "Get out of here."

"Okay," she was exhausted, and picking up her purse she paused before leaning in and giving Tony a small kiss on the cheek. "Anything. It's my job."

"And you're damn good at it." he told her before patting her arm.

* * *

When Minnie was dropped off on the ranch she saw her dad walking out of the house, going to feed the animals and start the day. Pausing when he saw her, he turned away from the barn and approached his middle daughter, looking her over. "He okay?"

"He's alive." she replied with a weary nod. "I'm gonna go get a few hours." she gestured to the guest house. "I'm going to have to deal with the press tomorrow, and I've got to get Tony to release an official statement."

"Okay Sweetheart," he rubbed her arm comfortingly. "Get your rest. I'll have your mom keep something warm for you."

"Thanks Dad," she said softly, turning to go to the guest house and then pausing, the image of Happy, in that hospital bed, bloodied, bruised and out of surgery fresh in her mind before she turned around, wrapping her arms around her father. "I love you."

Nate looked down at his daughter, stroking the back of her hair for a moment before he kissed the crown on her head. "I love you too." he replied gently.

When she got into the guest house Minnie went automatically for the room she'd stayed in during Thanksgivings, only to find Bruce asleep in the bed. When the door opened he opened his eyes, looking around for a moment before his eyes settled on Minnie. "Hey," he sat up. "Is Happy okay?"

She wasn't sure what happened, but the next thing she knew she was on her knees, sobbing into her hands and Bruce was beside her, wrapping his arms around her. "Come on," he whispered softly, getting her to her feet. Leading her to the bed he sat her down, moving to kneel in front of her. "Minnie, it's going to be okay."

"How can you be so sure?" she asked, and for half a second she was sure she looked like quite the mess, tears running down her face, her hair loose and messy, dark circles around her eyes from lack of sleep, and her face unwashed for hours. "God Bruce," she hiccuped and he chuckled, moving to the bathroom to fill a glass with water. "How can you possibly think things are going to be okay?"

He sighed, looking at her sympathetically as he handed her the glass, kneeling in front of her again he moved his hands to her calves, and then down, slipping the high heels she'd been wearing for far too long off, his hands rubbing her feet gently. "I'm not sure," he told her honestly. "But after everything we've seen, we still make it out. And that has to count for something." he reminded her gently. Minnie smiled at that before sipping the water and nodding. "You want to take this bed? I can move to one of the other rooms, because no offense but you look like you could use a few hours."

"No," Minnie reached down, taking his hand and holding it for a moment. "Stay with me." Bruce looked at their entwined hands, biting his lip for a moment before he sighed and looked down.

"Minnie I- I can't-"

"I just don't want to be alone. I don't need anything from you, not like that. Just- Just don't go okay?" she asked and he lifted his dark eyes to hers.

"Okay." he agreed. "I'll stay."

* * *

 _ **Okay, I hope you liked it! A little nod to a one shot I wrote awhile ago that I may decide to post here, where Minnie and Happy get to know each other through the job and have a sweet little moment on New Year's. Let me know in the reviews if you'd like to read it sometime and I'll post it!**_


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